


Heartbeat

by callay



Category: Frontier Wolf - Rosemary Sutcliff
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 10:56:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2809766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callay/pseuds/callay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The entire circle of dancers was one whole animal, moving and thinking and breathing together, but somehow Alexios and Hilarion were alone in the heart of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heartbeat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Emma_Oz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emma_Oz/gifts).



> Thank you forever to [knucklewhite](http://www.knucklewhite.tumblr.com) for actually reading the book in order to beta!

The moon was full, the Dancing Ground flickered with the light of the torches, and the men danced in a circle.

It was a spear-dance, full of steps and spins and lunging thrusts, and it was done in two concentric rings, so that each man faced a partner and their spears tapped together in a series of strikes and parries. The clacking of the spears echoed across the wide-open space, keeping rhythm with the pulsing beat of the drums and wild cries of the men.

Alexios, dancing in the circle, felt the rhythm running through him as if it were his own heartbeat, as if it could sweep him away. He didn’t let himself get swept away. He could feel the eyes of the gathered men on him, and the curious glances of his fellow dancers. This was the first time he was joining in a real weapon-dance, and he refused to make any mistakes.

There was one who did not watch Alexios with curiosity, and that was the man facing him in the other ring, Hilarion. Hilarion danced with his head thrown back and a smile on his face.

Alexios had known that Hilarion joined in the weapon-dances sometimes, but this was the first time he’d seen him. Hilarion was beautiful. His normal slouching attitude was transformed by the dance into fluid movement, like a sapling bending in the breeze. Yet he showed all the strength demanded by the spear-dance, power in his foot-stomps and purpose in the jabs of his spear.

Alexios couldn’t look away. He found himself mirroring Hilarion’s movements rather than focusing on the steps he had studied. Slowly, Alexios’s dance lost some of its rigidity. His body moved on instinct and memory and the sight of Hilarion, and for the first time he could feel the spirit of the dance running through him, heady and powerful.

Soon Alexios was sweating and breathing hard, and the cool night air was biting at him through his damp tunic, but all he could feel was the dance moving around him. He lunged forward as Hilarion moved back, then back as Hilarion moved forward, and then planted both feet on the ground to thrust his spear towards the sky. The men around him howled and Alexios did too, feeling some primal power gather in his belly and burst from his mouth.

When he looked at Hilarion after, Hilarion was looking back at him, pale eyes glinting in the torchlight. Then they whirled away, the two circles separating and then contracting again, but as soon as they faced each other again their eyes met once more. Hilarion’s face was unreadable but his eyes were bright and intense as he watched Alexios.

It felt to Alexios that the entire circle of dancers was one whole animal, moving and thinking and breathing together, but somehow Alexios and Hilarion were alone in the heart of it. Their eyes locked together felt like a physical connection, encompassing the whole of them, making them one.

The drums were speeding up, the dancers moving and stomping and yelling, and Alexios’s body followed along without conscious thought, because there was nothing in Alexios’s world but Hilarion, tall and graceful and bright-eyed.

The music built to a crescendo, drums rolling into a wave of sound, and the two circles stepped in close, raising their spears over their heads and bringing them against each other with a resounding clack. The drums fell silent and there was a long drawn-out howl from the men.

Neither Alexios nor Hilarion made a sound. The beat of the dance had ended, but Alexios still felt it pulsing in his heart, and the connection that had been made between him and Hilarion still prickled between them.

And then in a single smooth movement, Hilarion leaned forward and kissed Alexios on the mouth.

There was an instant where Alexios felt Hilarion’s lips against his, soft but insistent, and then Alexios jerked back, shocked.

Around them, men laughed and cheered. Hilarion’s mouth was curled into a mocking smile.

Blood rushed to Alexios’s face. He had sensed a connection between them, yet Hilarion had only wanted to make him look the fool.

Under the eyes of the gathered men, Alexios twitched his shoulders back and forced himself to smile. “Is that how the dance is normally ended, then?”

Hilarion propped his spear on the ground and leaned his weight on it, smirking still. His mocking look said he saw right through Alexios. “Only on special occasions.”

“Well, if I had known of it, I’d have found a better-looking partner,” said Alexios coolly, and the laughs around him gave him leave to look away from Hilarion, turn, and leave the circle.

He’d planned to stay and watch the rest of the dances, but his heart was still pounding and his face still flushed and instead he kept going, leaving the Dancing Grounds. Behind him, the drums were already starting up again, and he hoped few would notice his exit.

He could hear dancers beginning to move in the center of the wide-open space, feet thudding against the ground, and the gathered men in a ring around them were chattering and laughing, but beyond the circle of torches the night was cool and still.

Yet someone followed him with loping footsteps. “Running away, are you, sir?”

Drawing up next to the granaries, Alexios turned to face his pursuer. It was darker here without the Dancing Grounds’ torches, but the moonlight caught Hilarion’s face, cheeks still flushed with the exertion of the dance. His mouth bore the same small smile as always.

“Why should I stay and be mocked?” said Alexios. Without the other men looking on, he allowed a bit of his frustration to creep into his tone.

Hilarion was a good Centenarius, knowledgeable and skilled, and diligent despite his show of laziness. In the months since his arrival at Castellum, Alexios had come to rely on Hilarion, to enjoy his company, to think, in fact, quite highly of him. But none of that excused Hilarion undermining him in front of nearly the whole ordo, just when Alexios thought he was finally doing something right.

Hilarion had slunk around to the wall of the granary, where he leaned, grinning at Alexios. “’Mocked’?” he repeated, mockingly. “I wanted to kiss you, so I did.”

“Could you be serious for once?”

Carefully, Hilarion unfolded himself from the wall and stood up straight-backed, looking Alexios in the eye.

“I am being serious.”

Alexios didn’t know how to respond. For a moment there was nothing but the steady pound of drums from the Dancing Grounds.

Hilarion took a prowling step closer. “I want you,” he said, a slight teasing smile growing on his face. “And everyone knows you want me.”

“I –“ Alexios started, and then stopped himself. He thought of all the times he’d looked at Hilarion, Hilarion with his brilliant eyes and his crooked smile, with that long body of his draped over benches and propped in doorways; Hilarion with freckles on his cheeks and, Alexios had seen in the bathhouse, scattered over his chest like constellations. So Alexios didn’t argue, just kept still, his heart keeping pace with the heavy beat of the drums.

Hilarion drew closer still. “So you’ll have to forgive me, Sir,” he said silkily. “They say that performing dances like these, like the war dances of old, brings man closer to his instincts. He ceases to be a man, locked in by rules and customs, and becomes more akin to an animal.”

Alexios’s heart lurched as he remembered the wild feeling of losing himself in the dance. Hilarion was leaning in close, and Alexios felt pinned by the look in his eyes.

“Animals are ruled only by hunger,” continued Hilarion, in a light, soft voice that somehow thrummed with a darker undercurrent. “Animals take what they want.”

Their mouths were so close that Alexios could almost feel Hilarion’s lips on his again. Want rolled through him in a wave, and he couldn’t breathe, and he couldn’t move.

Hilarion didn’t move either, just waited, watching Alexios.

Suddenly, beyond the granary the dance entered its final stage, and the drums picked up speed, the rhythm rising into a loud urgent throb. It echoed through Alexios, pulsed through his veins, and in a sudden rush he grabbed Hilarion by the tunic and kissed him.

Hilarion pressed insistently back against Alexios, his mouth as sweet as honey, and Alexios felt something inside him break into a hundred glittering pieces.

He wrapped his arms around Hilarion, pulling him close. Hilarion melted into him, draping himself over Alexios, body warm in the cool air. He kissed slowly, lips moving lazily against Alexios’s, as if they had all the time in the world.

Want still pounded through Alexios, deepening with every brush of Hilarion’s lips, until he couldn’t help but slide a hand into Hilarion’s hair, pull him closer, and kiss hard into his mouth. Hilarion made a pleased sound and met Alexios’s tongue with his, graceful against Alexios’s raw desire.

They fit together perfectly. Hilarion yielded to him, leaning into Alexios’s embrace and opening his mouth to Alexios’s tongue, and it was better than Alexios had ever dreamed. Yet Hilarion was also in the lead, shifting and changing the kiss, slowly teaching Alexios exactly what to do, and that was better still.

Alexios felt intoxicated, dizzy, like he was still whirling through the motions of the dance. He knew that anything between them would never be as simple as it seemed right then, under the light of the moon, with the bewitching beat of the drum binding them together. But for the moment, there was nothing in his world but Hilarion, and his heart was soaring in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time.


End file.
